Iran’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif has issued a response on behalf of Iran regarding the open letter sent to the Islamic Republic of Iran and drafted by Republican Senator Tom Cotton and signed by 46 other Republican Senators. The response is nothing less than damnin,g and highlights the (new) international embarrassment the Republican Party has brought upon the United States. In the statement Dr. Zarif, stated:

“In our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.”

He goes on to suggest that Netanyahu, along with the Republicans who signed the letter, view peace as an “existential threat.”

Oh, wait there’s more. Dr. Zarif goes even further. According to the statement, after reading the letter, Dr. Zarif expressed astonishment at the utter lack of understanding of not only international law, but even the United States Constitution. The statement reads:

“…it seems that the authors not only do not understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution when it comes to presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy.”

The letter made claims that if a peace agreement is made without ratification from Congress, they will consider it an “executive agreement” and it could be revoked by a future president. The letter reads:

“… we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”

Dr. Zarif responds to this by saying:

“Change of administration does not in any way relieve the next administration from international obligations undertaken by its predecessor in a possible agreement about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. I wish to enlighten the authors that if the next administration revokes any agreement with the stroke of a pen, as they boast, it will have simply committed a blatant violation of international law.”

The statement then goes on to inform the Republicans that current negotiations will not result in a bilateral agreement between the United States and Iran. It will, in fact, have the full participation of five other countries, including all permanent members of the Security Council and it will have to be endorsed by the Security Council resolution.

Now, not only are the Republican Senators facing serious allegations of committing treason, they are also now being schooled on international and United States constitutional law by Iran.